Middletown Thrall Library Invites You to Go... BEYOND THE BESTSELLERS: Your Personal Guide to Interesting Books Not Necessarily Found on Bestseller Lists: Spring 2006 Edition

You can pick up a printed version of this list at Middletown Thrall Library.


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Past Issues

Missed a past issue of Beyond the Bestsellers? Click below for previous BTBs and more reading recommendations:

Consider any of the titles below the next time you're looking for something interesting to read. To learn more about a book and check on its availablity within the library system, click a title link below.

Some book records in the library catalog have additional links you can click to learn more about the book and the author. Some titles even have chapter excerpts that you can read online!

Scroll down and browse by genre to begin!





GENERAL FICTION

  • The Girls by Lori Lansens. Joined at their skull with a shared vital vein making separation impossible, Rose and Ruby Darben share their stories in this wonderful novel. At 29 years old, these Canadian women have their own jobs at the library, amazingly different interior lives, and distinct voices. There is much to enjoy here.


Other titles to consider:

HISTORICAL FICTION

  • Brookland by Emily Barton. An eighteenth century dream to build a bridge across the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn is the centerpiece of this epic tale of a family distillery and three sisters in colonial New York.


Other titles to consider:

MYSTERIES

  • Death Without Company by Craig Johnson. Absaroka County, Wyoming is the kind of insulated community where everyone knows everyone else. When Sheriff Walt Longmire investigates the death of a woman in an assisted living home, the evidence points back to his mentor, former Sheriff Lucian Connally. "Walt and his idiosyncratic crew are terrific company - droll, sassy and surprisingly tenderhearted." Kirkus
  • Summer Snowby Rebecca Pawel. Set in fascist Spain shortly after World War II, this mystery features complex characters and plenty of suspense. Gardia Lieutenant Carlos Tejada at the bequest of his father investigates the death of his own paranoid great-aunt, Dona Rosalie.


  • SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

    • Crystal Rainby Tobias Buckell. Twenty-seven years ago, John de Brun washed up on the shore of Nanagunda with no memory. He made a life for himself on the planet but is haunted by his lack of identity. Now he must help save his adopted homeland from the Azteca, who want fresh sacrifices for their gods, by recovering a lost technological artifact, the Ma Wi Jung. The rapid pace and human characters distinguish this science fiction debut.


    Other titles to consider:

    THRILLERS

    • Isolation Ward by Joshua Spanogle. Three young women enter a Baltimore hospital with flu like symptoms. When their skin begins to slough off, the CDC's Dr. Nathaniel McCormick is called in. Is it a terrorist attack or something more domestically sinister? This debut medical thriller by a Stanford medical student is getting lots of praise.


    Other titles to consider: